A conversation with Felix Scheinberger from “An Illustrated Journey”

Felix Scheinberger is a German illustrator and teacher who loves to hit the road and see the world (and takes his students too!). I love the comic darkness of his work, the looseness of his line, and his debt to Tomi Ungerer who had long been one of my favorite illustrators too. I also love his passion for travelling and seeing the rawness of the world.

We had some technical problems at one point so our conversation comes in two servings:

Felix shares a lot more in my book. Here’s an excerpt:

“Travelling is an integral part of my work. But I don’t travel to illustrate, I illustrate to travel, and I travel to understand the world and my role in it. Spectacular journeys aren’t what I am looking for, I want to depict things that mean a lot to me, and sometimes journeys don’t evoke the feelings I am looking for. And I don’t travel on the look-out for beauty. I look for real images, real emotions. So a journey to the Toscana just to draw terra cotta paths seems like a waste of time. These images have been made a hundred times over….” (continued)

8Comments

Thanks for sharing this interview Danny. Felix’s thoughts on illustrating to travel really resonated with me. I ask myself this question when I go to work – should my work give me meaning or is work a means for me to search for meaning in life? Perhaps it is the second one.

I agree with Lynn…you two look as if you could be related. Felix, you are so inspiring. Love your art. Danny, finally ordered the Illustrated Journey. Who hoo! Hey, it would be cool to have these interviews available to purchase on DVD.

I’ve seen it long time ago when I manage to “sneak” into your blog…now I thought the solved editing problems would fix my issue with understanding his English better…:0(….there is any chance of getting a cc for this interview…? I’m not kidding I would love to hear all he was saying.

[…] in Berlin, Germany. Note : some of these photos are from Danny Gregory’s site and to an interview between Felix Scheinberger and him… worth to read! I love both styles which are similar in several points : their […]